Safe City Ch.147.1

Chapter 147.1: The Three Major Companies + 1

“Lord of Tata finally made a move.”

While Yu Bo had made up her mind to start calling in reinforcements, determined to somehow get herself into the [Ota] organization and make a name for herself in this world, Cheng Qisheng was looking over the large pile of gifts Lord of Tata had sent.

After returning from Tu’ao, Blue Sea’s intelligence and strategic analysis department predicted that there was an eighty percent chance Lord of Tata would take the initiative to show goodwill toward [Ota].

In fact, even before they went to Tu’ao to rescue Jin Yin, Blue Sea had already gathered a great deal of intelligence on Tata Territory and its current lord.

The intelligence department had originally assumed that, given the long history of “pure hatred with no love” between the successive lords of Tata and Broken River, combined with Lord of Tata’s reputation for being ferocious and violent, the moment Blue Sea’s forces arrived from the direction of Broken River and were discovered by her, the two sides would inevitably clash.

And Blue Sea certainly wouldn’t underestimate any opponent, especially a Lord of Tata who had already made quite a name for herself in the surrounding region.

They certainly didn’t think they could simply march over, raise a flag of peace, shout, “We’re the good guys!”, and expect the other side to believe them.

Blue Sea might not have had particularly extensive experience in other areas, but when it came to combat, they had an abundance of experience.

Even a student who had just reached adulthood would know that words like those only carried weight after you’d beaten the other side.

At the time, Blue Sea had been on full alert. They had brought a large number of personnel and a formidable arsenal, making thorough preparations for battle.

Only for Lord of Tata to turn around and run.

Without even looking back.

The entire Blue Sea military intelligence and strategic analysis department—which, according to the rumors, had almost never made a mistake since its establishment—worked overtime for five straight days after receiving the news.

If all the intelligence they currently had on Lord of Tata were printed out, it would be enough to fill three large crates.

As for the Blue Sea personnel who had been there at the time, whether they were thinking, “Great, we can bring everyone home without a hitch!” or “Aw, what a shame we didn’t get to fight,” was anyone’s guess.

In any case, once word of Lord of Tata’s actions reached Blue Sea, the intelligence department immediately adjusted its plans for the future.

They concluded that Tata Territory would definitely send someone to offer a gesture of goodwill.

Fortunately, the intelligence department’s prediction had been spot-on this time.

Lord of Tata had sent over a large number of precious gifts: food, vehicles, wine that had been stored for a hundred and fifty years, and a large number of mutant beasts suitable for breeding.

By current standards on Moon Silk, these could be considered extremely practical and sincere gifts.

But what Cheng Qisheng liked most were the truckloads of nuclear crystals.

The fact that people on Moon Silk liked giving nuclear crystals as gifts was really right up her alley.

Ever since she had practically emptied her entire savings in one go to advance to Tier 6, Cheng Qisheng had developed a new hobby:

—Whenever a new batch of nuclear crystals was added to the warehouse, she would use her mental power to count how many there were.

Actually, if she wanted to know the number, she could simply check the warehouse records.

But Cheng Qisheng just felt happier counting them herself, one crystal at a time.

Besides, splitting her mental power into countless thin strands and wrapping each individual nuclear crystal with one strand to count them was essentially a way of training her mental power.

How had Cheng Qisheng discovered this?

Ever since she had picked up this new hobby, when she reached the 1.57 millionth nuclear crystal, she distinctly noticed that her body’s reaction speed had slowed down slightly.

Only by a tiny amount—roughly 0.005 milliseconds slower than before.

If Cheng Qisheng hadn’t become considerably more sensitive to her own body after advancing to Tier 6 Transcendence, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

“Sure enough, the old saying is right: everything has two sides.”

At that moment, Cheng Qisheng was counting nuclear crystals with her mental power, practicing exerting force with a newly purchased dumbbell, and chatting with Aether all at the same time.

“All the information we’ve collected from the other city lords says that mental power is elusive. There’s no standardized method of training it, and there’s no way to independently determine whether it’s improved.”

She paused.

“Yet the Mortal Body Syndrome ended up giving me a way to identify exactly what can improve mental power.”

Whenever she was doing something and her body’s reaction speed became slower as she continued, that meant the activity could improve her mental power.

Cheng Qisheng felt that at this point, she could practically write a book titled A Complete Guide to Mental Power Training Methods.

Aether floated over in front of her, its jellyfish tentacles swaying gently in a steady rhythm.

“City Lord, your Mortal Body Syndrome has only just started to improve. Increasing your mental power will worsen your condition.”

Cheng Qisheng set down the dumbbell. Looking at the shallow fingerprints she had left in it, she slowly kneaded the metal back into shape.

“I know.”

She put the restored dumbbell aside, smiling as she wiped away her sweat, then headed off to chop down a tree by the artificial lake.

“When I first became the City Lord, I really was worried about my condition getting worse.”

“But things are different now. As the Safe City continues to advance in rank, I’ll continue receiving treatment. As long as I don’t regress to the point where I can’t take care of myself, I can completely accept being a little slower when doing things.”

Aether still didn’t understand.

“But don’t you desperately want to make a full recovery?”

Why, then, was she now deliberately making her condition worse?

The tree came crashing down. Cheng Qisheng immediately picked it up and dragged it toward the site of the log cabin. Recently, she had been planning to build a large wooden house beside the artificial lake. Whenever she wanted to relax, she could occasionally spend a night there, go fishing, and watch the birds.

Aether followed alongside her, floating lightly to Cheng Qisheng’s left.

Cheng Qisheng set the tree down beside the half-finished cabin, then sat on the trunk and gazed at the shimmering waters of the lake.

“How should I put it? Wanting something doesn’t mean you have to achieve it right this moment.”

“Of course I want to make a full recovery. But judging from the current situation, I’ve concluded that improving my mental power is more important.”

Cheng Qisheng opened her palm and let Aether float down onto it.

The little jellyfish stretched out its transparent bell, glowing faintly. Recently, it had developed an aesthetic sense of its own. Its original pearly white glow had now changed into soft, cyan-blue points of light.

As its tentacles opened and closed, beautiful specks of fluorescence drifted outward like glowing ocean currents, resembling a river of stars flowing through the vast cosmos—so beautiful that it was breathtaking.

Sure enough, looking at beautiful things really did put her in a better mood.

Cheng Qisheng poked Aether, a faint smile curling her lips.

“After seeing the greater universe and then coming to Moon Silk, I think it’s time we started preparing in advance.”

She had previously assumed that apocalyptic worlds were all about natural disasters.

At most, there would be some zombies and mutated beasts. But the appearance of Moon Silk had made Cheng Qisheng realize that she had been thinking far too simply.

“Since a world like Moon Silk, with its [Technological Hell], can exist, who knows what other bizarre apocalyptic worlds we’ll encounter in the future? What if one day we end up in a world where the apocalypse attacks people’s minds?”

Aether calculated for half a second.

“City Lord, your speculation is quite reasonable. There are countless worlds in the greater universe, so it is indeed possible that we may encounter a situation like that.”

Cheng Qisheng sent Aether floating off to the side and began shaving down the wood.

With her current strength, shaving wood was practically no different from sharpening a pencil. The sight was rather brutal.

“So, I need to keep improving my mental power. I don’t know whether Blue Sea will encounter a world like that in the future, but I have to make sure that if we do, I’ll be able to do something about it.”

To be honest, although Cheng Qisheng thought Old Eighth was wonderful in every way, they did indeed have a weakness.

Because they were all born under the same faith, the people of Blue Sea could be described as having exceptionally pure minds. Although their innate love of combat meant they frequently waged wars, in reality, Blue Sea people rarely harbored any deliberate malice toward their own kind.

For Old Eighth, who had grown up in such an environment, a mental attack would be harder to resist than it would be for other human civilizations.

When they had witnessed people eating people on Green Billow, Old Eighth had already been deeply shaken.

Then, after arriving on Moon Silk and hearing about the practice of “removing people’s brains and forcing them to work for eight hundred years,” Old Eighth had once again been profoundly traumatized.

It was the kind of thing that would give them nightmares just from hearing about it.

Only after Cheng Qisheng comforted them by patting their heads did they quickly calm down.

But this actually couldn’t be considered a weakness.

If anything, it could even be called an advantage.

It was precisely because their minds were so open and pure that Blue Sea people could maintain an optimistic outlook most of the time, and when they set their minds to something, they could focus on it to an almost absurd degree.

For example, combat.

And combat.

And combat.

Put bluntly, Old Eighth’s minds could easily become highly focused, but they weren’t guarded. Compared with humans from other civilizations, they were better suited to physical combat, but also more likely to lose mental sanity points.

And Cheng Qisheng possessed the highest level of authority over every believer’s mental domain.

She could become her believers’ firewall.

She had already begun quietly training her mental power back on Green Billow. After arriving on Moon Silk, Cheng Qisheng became even more determined to continue.

After listening to the City Lord, Aether—the jellyfish superintelligence that normally responded within seconds—actually paused for more than ten seconds.

“But, City Lord, your mental power can already cover hundreds of millions of people.”

Wasn’t that enough?

“No.”

Cheng Qisheng continued shaving the wood as she answered.

“We don’t know what we’ll encounter in the future, so we have to keep preparing. Only by doing everything we can will we have no regrets.”

Aether looked at the City Lord. The fluorescence within its jellyfish body began to flicker a little faster.

In Aether’s understanding, the City Lord and the AI only needed to upgrade the Safe City. Once it advanced to a higher tier, their strength would naturally increase as well.

But watching the City Lord work so hard, Aether felt as though it had learned something.

“Aether understands, City Lord. Aether will speed up its learning progress too. Although I’m already Tier 6, I should be like you, City Lord, and improve my database and level of knowledge, so that Blue Sea Safe City can become even better.”

It announced solemnly, “I’m not going to watch Thirty-Six Deadly Sharks today. And After Big Brother Became a Panda, My Nail Clipper Transformed into a Handsome Man will only get two episodes… No, one episode.”

Cheng Qisheng stopped her vigorous wood-shaving.

Somehow, even from a jellyfish-shaped brain, she could make out a hint of seriousness.

The more serious Aether looked, the more she wanted to laugh.

“Aether, you really are becoming more and more human. You even know how to set a flag now.”

“Just watch two episodes. We’re only preparing for a rainy day. It’s not like we’re at the point where you need to work overtime around the clock.”

Aether’s beautiful fluorescent jellyfish body immediately took on a faint gradient of pink with excitement.

“Thank you, City Lord! Aether is so happy!”

Cheng Qisheng: “35,000.”

Aether instantly understood.

“Have you finished counting the nuclear crystals sent by Tata Territory, City Lord?”

Cheng Qisheng nodded. “Finished.”

“Moon Silk really is wealthy. They gave us thirty-five thousand nuclear crystals just as a meeting gift.”

The great Blue Sea Creator God was, just like every corrupt official who had been bribed, completely immersed in the joy of a bountiful harvest.

And these were only the gifts sent by Tata.

The nuclear crystals Blue Sea had confiscated while clearing out mutant beasts during this period would only add up to even more.

“Arrange for someone to send them some return gifts.”

As for what to give in return, Cheng Qisheng didn’t need to worry about that. Blue Sea had dedicated personnel who would conduct a thorough analysis and determine the most appropriate gifts.

“Oh, right. Tata is our neighbor, after all. Aether, tell the military department that the large mutant plant we’ve been leaving unresolved can finally be dealt with. Keeping it around is also getting in the way of expanding the farmland.”

“Remember, make sure Tata’s people happen to see it.”

Aether understood immediately.

“Yes, City Lord.”

…

After paying their respects to the [Company], the gift-bearing delegation from Tata Territory began making their way back along the same route.

On the journey home, the group—who had previously been consumed by thoughts of “A [Company] has appeared nearby. What if they refuse our gifts? Could Tata Territory face total annihilation?”—were visibly much more relaxed.

“As expected of the [Company]. They really are filthy rich. They actually used so much natural food as return gifts.”

“Lord of Tata is truly wise. Now our Tata Territory can be considered to have a powerful backer.”

When they had come, they had traveled by themselves, so they had taken the old roads.

But things were different on the way back.

The [Company] had provided them with a new, much faster route.

And at this very moment, the people from Tata Territory were traveling along it.

As they traveled, just like on their way there, they didn’t see a single large mutant beast anywhere across the entire Broken River Wasteland. Clearly, the rumors that “The [Company] has eliminated every major threat” were not unfounded.

What terrifying strength.

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